Palestine

May 22, 2024

You Can’t Google the Future

Five years ago, I gave the commencement talk at Brighton College in Al AIn in the UAE, and I talked about not being able to Google the future. Those students have or will graduate from university this year. And what a future none of us could have imagined: Their university years were framed by a Continue reading

Abu Dhabi, AI, Arts and Culture, Author, Books, COVID, Graduation, Heritage, Pandemic

Abu Dhabi, AI, artificial-intelligence, chatgpt, COVID, Gaza, Google, Graduation, Graduation Ceremony, Palestine, Pandemic, technology, The Night Counter
March 18, 2019

Full House for The Golden Harvest Debut at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival

(March 14, 2019) The Golden Harvest (2019, 85 min) made its debut on March 4, 2019 at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival to a full house. The screening was followed by a lively Q & A that continued onto the pier along the fabulous arthouse area of the city where the majority of the festival Continue reading

Arab Americans, Film, Food, Greece, Italy, Middle East, Olive Oil, olive trees, Palestine, Spain, The Golden Harvest, Thessaloniki International Film Festival

Alia Yunis, Documentary, Film, film festival, Food, Greece, Italy, Mediterranean, Mediterranean Diet, Palestine, Spain, Thessaloniki Internatnional Film Festival, Travel
May 8, 2010

A Palestinian Filmmaker in Israel

For years, my friend Hala Gabriel has been working on documentary about the destruction in 1948 of Tantura, her family’s picturesque village in what was then Palestine. For a Palestinian to even attempt such a project as hers is to face unfathomable odds, which she has. Finally, she was able to get to Tantura in Continue reading

Arabs, Film, Palestine

Documentary, Film, Palestine
July 28, 2009

Overcoming Speechlessness by Alice Walker

When I was in college, I remember reading THE COLOR PURPLE in an American studies class and marveling at how someone could write of such horrible indignities done on to someone with such dignity. I still am in awe of such a skill, and I was reminded of it yesterday during a bout of insomnia–I Continue reading

Author, Books, Middle East, Palestine, Publishing

Alice Walker, Congo, Palestine, Rawanda
July 6, 2009

Israeli authorities threaten demolition of 500 church buildings

Add this to the daily demolition of generations old homes, the bulldozing of olive trees and other land cultivated for centuries, the siphoning off of water–not to mention the human rights abuses–and people still wonder why Palestinian hearts break every day. Israeli authorities threaten demolition of 500 church buildings Date: 28 June 2009 Israeli authorities Continue reading

Arabs, Middle East, Palestine

Christians, Jerusalem, Palestine

About Alia

Alia Yunis is a writer, journalist and filmmaker. She is currently producing and directing “The Golden Harvest,” a feature length documentary about how olive oil has shaped the Mediterranean culture, cuisine and history for 6,000 years, through war and peace. Her debut novel, The Night Counter (Random House) has been critically acclaimed by the Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, and several other publications. It was also chosen as a top summer read by the Chicago Tribune and Boston Phoenix. The Boston Globe has called it “wonderfully imaginative…poignant, hilarious.” Alia was born in Chicago and grew up in the U.S., Greece, and the Middle East. She has worked as a filmmaker and journalist in several cities, especially Los Angeles. Her fiction has appeared in several anthologies, including The Robert Olen Butler Best Short Stories collection, and her non-fiction work includes articles for The Los Angeles Times, Saveur, SportsTravel Magazine, and Aramco World. She currently teaches film at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi.

Palestine

You Can’t Google the Future

Full House for The Golden Harvest Debut at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival

A Palestinian Filmmaker in Israel

Overcoming Speechlessness by Alice Walker

Israeli authorities threaten demolition of 500 church buildings